The Heinlein Society (www.heinleinsociety.org) announced today that its
panel of judges for the Robert A. Heinlein Award for outstanding published
work in hard science fiction or technical writings inspiring the human
exploration of space has chosen Mr. Larry Niven and Dr. Jerry Pournelle to
be the 2005 recipients. The Awards will be presented, in cooperation with
Cascadia Con at the Society’s annual banquet to be held on Sunday night at
this year’s 8th North America Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC), on
September 4, in Seattle, Washington. Both Mr. Niven and Dr. Pournelle plan
to attend in person. The Golden Duck Awards and Seiun Awards are also
going
to be presented at this NASFiC-scheduled banquet by their respective
sponsors.

This is the third year that The Heinlein Society has presented its
Heinlein
Award, with last year’s recipient being Sir Arthur C. Clarke, and the 2003
inaugural recipients being Virginia Heinlein and science fiction author
Michael Flynn. The independent panel of judges who selected the 2005
awardees includes Greg Bear, Michael Flynn, Joe Haldeman, Yoji Kondo,
Elizabeth Moon, Spider Robinson, Stanley Schmidt, Herb Gilliland, and John
Hill. Greg Bear will be Toastmaster for the banquet. For more information
on
the Heinlein Award and the society’s annual banquet, contact The Heinlein
Society at secretary@heinleinsociety.org. Dinner tickets may be reserved
and
ordered at Heinlein Award Dinner Reservations.

Niven and Pournelle, beginning in November 1980, along with the late
Robert
A. Heinlein, served upon the Citizens’ Advisory Council on National Space
Policy to the President, which Pournelle chaired and for which Niven
hosted
meetings. Both have written extensive readable speculative fiction and
non-fiction that inspires humanity's expansion into space.

“We are delighted with the selection of Mr. Niven and Dr. Pournelle to
receive this year’s Robert A. Heinlein Award,” said Society president
David
M. Silver, “as they both have consistently written the kind of visionary
and
readable speculative fiction that Robert Heinlein introduced to the field
in
1939. Robert Heinlein called their first collaboration, The Mote in God’s
Eye, ‘possibly the finest science fiction I have ever read’.” Silver
continued, “We are equally delighted they both will be joining us at this
year’s awards banquet in Seattle which will be featured as its Sunday
evening program event by Cascadia Con as well.”

Laurence van Cott Niven was born in Los Angeles on April 30, 1938. After
studying at California Institute of Technology and Washburn University,
Kansas, he completed one year of graduate work in mathematics at UCLA
before
dropping out to start writing in the 1960s. Larry actively participates in
numerous SF conventions, in Boy Scout activities and is a member of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science. Larry is married to
Marilyn ("Fuzzy Pink") Niven and resides in Chatsworth, California.

Jeremia Eugene Pournelle was born on August 7, 1933, in Shreveport,
Louisiana. He served in the US Army during the Korean War, receiving a
direct commission as a Lieutenant of Artillery in the field in Korea.
After
Korea, he obtained advanced degrees in psychology, statistics, engineering
and political science including two PhDs from the University of
Washington.
In the 1960s, he served as Executive Assistant to the Mayor for the City
of
Los Angeles, making use of that experience later when he edited Robert
Heinlein's unpublished "How To Be a Politician" which was released as Take
Back Your Government! (1992). He is also a noted lecturer, essayist,
consultant and advisor, computer columnist, and holds memberships in and
has
served as a board member to numerous professional space-related
organizations. He has served as a past President of the Science Fiction
Writers of America. His non-fiction, including book-length collections
such
as a Step Further Out (1979) are extensive. Jerry is married to Roberta
Jane
nee Isdell. They have four sons and one daughter and currently reside in
Studio City, California.

Larry's first published SF story, "The Coldest Place," appeared in the
December 1964. Larry is probably best known for his "Known Space" future
history containing over 30 short stories and novels which intermingle into
a
complex timeline dating from several billion years into prehistory into
the
future beyond 3200. Perhaps the most famous of the Known Space titles is Ringworld, which earned Larry both the Hugo and the Nebula awards in 1970
and the Australian Ditmar Award in 1972.

Jerry began fiction writing with a non-SF work under a pseudonym in 1965.
Some SF novels under his own name include The Endless Frontier (1979),
King
David's Spaceship (1973), Janissaries (1979), Clan and Crown: Janissaries
II (1982) Storms of Victory: Janissaries III (1987), Prince of Mercenaries
(1989), Falkenberg's Legion (1990), Prince of Sparta (1993), and Go Tell
the
Spartans (1991).

In the mid seventies these two Heinlein Award winners first collaborated
on
The Mote In God's Eye (1974). Its sequel in 1991 was The Gripping Hand.
Other collaborations by Jerry and Larry include Inferno (1976), Lucifer's
Hammer (1977), Footfall (1985), The Legacy of Heorot (1987), with Steven
Barnes, and Fallen Angels (1991), with 2003 Heinlein Award winner Michael
Flynn, and The Burning Tower (2005). In 1985, Footfall, in which Robert
Heinlein was a thinly veiled character, held the number one spot on the
New
York Times bestseller list. Another bestseller, Lucifer's Hammer (1977),
reached number two. Fallen Angels won the Prometheus Award in 1992 for
Best
Novel and the Seiun Award (from Japan), for Foreign Novel in 1998.

In 1973, Larry Niven was awarded the Skylark Award, officially the "Edward
E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction," given annually by the
New
England Science Fiction Association, for significant contribution to SF in
the spirit of the writer E.E. "Doc" Smith. Jerry Pournelle was the first
winner of the John W. Campbell Award in 1974, and won the Evans-Freehafer
Award in 1977, and both the "Forrie" and the Inkpot Award in 1979. Both
writers have had over a dozen nominations for Nebula and Hugo Awards.

Larry's latest single authored current work available is Ringworld's
Children (2004), the fourth installment in the Ringworld Saga. Jerry's and
Larry’s latest current co-authored work is The Burning Tower (2005), a
sequel to The Burning City (2000).

The Heinlein
Society was founded by Virginia Heinlein on behalf of her husband, science
fiction author Robert Anson Heinlein, to "pay forward" the legacy of Robert A. Heinlein to future generations of "Heinlein's Children."